Matriculation results, declared by the Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) in Ranchi on Thursday, plummeted to an eight-year low, but broke many a myth as far as achiever individuals and institutions were concerned.

While the secondary success rate stood at a disappointing 67.35 per cent, this was the first time a tribal girl arguably notched the highest score and a Hazaribagh school robbed a traditional winner-churning Netarhat cradle of its covetous title. Also, fair power emerged in full force, with 11 of the first 15 achievers being girls.

As many as 4,34,798 students, including 2,02,905 girls, had taken the Class X board examination conducted by JAC in February-March this year. While the pass percentage of the fair sex stood at 64.84 per cent, boys were a tad better at 69.58.

District-wise, rebel-dominated Palamau — billed one of the most backward regions of Jharkhand, romped to the top of the chart with a success rate of over 80 per cent. Poverty-stricken Giridih too beat the odds to come a close second with 78.61 per cent. Hazaribagh ranked third with a score of 73.61 per cent.

Ranchi district, which houses the capital city, notched an average success rate of 69.86 per cent and found the 7th place on the merit chart, while steel district Bokaro stood 9th with 69.53 per cent. Chief minister Arjun Munda’s home district of Seraikela-Kharsawan saw the worst slide from rank three last year to 10th with a success rate of 68.50 per cent. East Singhbhum (63.91 per cent) found the 14th place and Dhanbad (59.78 per cent) an even more discouraging rank of 17. Jamtara bottomed the list with 53.85 per cent.

Assembly Speaker C.P. Singh, HRD minister Baidyanath Ram and JAC chairperson Laxmi Singh released the results at the council’s Namkum headquarters at 12.45pm after which scores were available on its official website.

Of the top 10 students identified so far, two are tribal girls, one belongs to the Scheduled Caste and seven are from the OBC category. “We are happy to note that SC/ST and OBC students have done well in the Class X examination. But, the success rate has come down this year, which is a cause of concern and we need to look into the matter,” Singh said, addressing the gathering in Namkum.

In 2011, of the total 3,54,626 students who had taken the matriculation exam, 69.31 per cent had succeeded in clearing it, a marginal 1.96 per cent more than this year. In the past eight years, the highest success rate was registered was 86.99 per cent in 2008.

“Though the pass percentage is lower this year, we do not regret it because it means that only hardworking students have cleared the test. For ensuring quality education, this is important,” HRD minister Ram said, adding that the matriculation sieve groomed students for competitions ahead.

JAC officials said Thursday’s results also indicated that the history of Netarhat Residential School bagging the first 10 ranks almost every year was being slowly rewritten. Hazaribagh’s Indira Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya spawned three achievers this year, while the Netarhat school sent one to the top 10 list. Last year too, the former cradle had bagged two berths on the merit list.